With his flattering physique reminiscent of a handsome romantic, German Jonas Kaufmann has successfully modernised the image of opera tenors, long considered as unrepentant tumblers… Beyond his powerful and versatile voice, Jonas Kaufmann possesses an immense repertoire in several languages, masters all styles of opera, from Wagner to Verdi or Puccini, and sings the lied or the French opera to perfection. A great admirer of Fritz Wunderlich, he started his career “the old fashioned way”, in a company touring around small German theatres before taking off on his own towards a prodigious career. After a chaotic year in 2017 due to a ruptured blood vessel on his vocal chords, Jonas Kaufmann seems to have fully recovered and is working on countless new projects. Qobuz looks back on his career, highlighting 10 albums.

Sehnsucht and know-how

In German, Sehnsucht describes a feeling that is hard to translate in another language, a sort of melancholia, languor, the quest for an unattainable absolute. It’s under this title that were pooled the opera extracts that make up this album. It seems the gods looked favourably on baby Jonas Kaufmann, who appears to have been gifted everything: talent, voice, beauty and intelligence. This recital is not only a sample of his talent, but also the true quintessence of his art and style. Masterfully accompanied by Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Kaufmann is this romantic hero who, like Manfred, seems to wander in the mountains, as shown on the album cover that mimics the famous Caspar David Friedrich painting. In these extracts from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Parsifal, and The Valkyrie, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Beethoven’s Fidelio (sublime air of Florestan), or from Schubert’s rare Fierrabras and Alfonso und Estrella, his singing is haughty, his timbre golden, his style refined, and his expression intense. A truly blissful recital.

A Wagner showered with prizes

Recorded in 2013 as part of the commemoration of the bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth, this album features a stunning, multi-award-winning recital. Kaufmann truly shines, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, led by Donald Runnicles. Along with extracts from The Ring Cycle (Siegfried and The Valkyrie), Rienzi, Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the Wesendonck Lieder, based on Felix Mottl’s orchestration but rarely sung by a man’s voice, delightfully stand out. Jonas Kaufmann is simply magnificent in the selected scenes, both for his musical perception as well as his dramatic power and technical perfection. His flawless diction, heroism and commitment make him one of today’s greatest Wagnerian singers. A true masterclass.

Schubertian grace

The highly anticipated recordings of Schubert’s two seminal cycles, Die Schöne Müllerin in 2010, and Winter Journey (Die Winterreise) in 2013, in collaboration with his partner and friend Helmut Deutsch on the piano, have definitely established Jonas Kaufmann at the top of the difficult art of the lied. With the radiant beauty of his voice, his tones alternating between heroic and dramatic, the hope of a soon-to-be disillusioned love with the brook (a symbol of the passing of time, and youth) running as a background, he embodies a touching miller, wandering and miserable. In Winter Journey, the wound is expressed without being ostentatious until the final despair; all the facets of a wandering life in 24 brief scenes during which Jonas Kaufmann and his dream partner describe changing emotions like the seismography of a tormented soul and a heart in disarray. An astounding performance that, through its chamber nature, breathes new life into these two monuments of German lied.

Hugo Wolf in duo

More recently, Jonas Kaufmann and Diana Damrau granted us with one of the greatest modern versions of Hugo Wolf’s works. Successively exalted or deeply depressed, like all bipolar beings, he contributed precious masterpieces to the lied with his great cycles, particularly this two-voice Italienisches Liederbuch, the true quintessence of his art. 46 lieds that talk about love through the crossed sensibilities of a man and a woman, with the two lovers’ dialogues alternating between irony, chivalry and absolute passion. Composed from texts by Paul Heyse and inspired by anonymous Tuscan poems, it features ballads, and most importantly, rispetti (compliments), small eight-line verses of popular origins. The German translation significantly deformed the original Italian lightness, particularly as Hugo Wolf didn’t try to keep the Italian spirit in his compositions. “A warm heart, I can assure you, beats in the small bodies of my youngest children of the south, who cannot, despite appearances, deny their German origins. Yes, their hearts beat in German, though the sun shines on them in Italian...”, he wrote to a friend. This Italian collection is made up, as described by Stéphane Goldet, of “small love comedies, moments of impatience or frustration; wishes and warnings, complaints and recriminations, grievances or unconditional surrenders”.

Captured at Saalbau Essen on February 18th, 2018, this new recording sets itself right next to the legendary recordings of the likes of Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau; it will undoubtedly become a new reference version. And while it was justified to worry about Jonas Kaufmann’s voice, it has clearly recovered its power and countless miraculous nuances. His partner Diana Damrau is radiant, her singing matching perfectly the moods of a worried, at times cunning young lady. This prestigious dialogue, however, would be meaningless without the subtle and refined piano of Helmut Deutsch, who provides irresistible support to these miniatures.